Once Upon A Time...
The Snelgraphix Designing Minds Blog: Starting The Story
“Mother Goose reading written fairy tales.” Art by Gustave Doré • Wkimedia Commons
No words have more spellbinding like power over human imagination than “Once Upon a Time”.
These words have inspired countless generations. These words have introduced endless minds to worlds of imaginative novelty previously unexplored. These words distinguish us from all other life forms and have motivated humanity to achieve feats once thought impossible. Many languages include a version of this truly magical phrase.
This is the first official Snelgraphix Designing Minds Blog entry. We thought it would be smart to start at the beginning with this initial social media endeavor. The Snelgraphix Designing Minds Blog will cover a range of subjects, from topics like the history of mass communication to the psychological power symbols have over the human mind. Art, science, and history will be the mental landscape we will be exploring. The impact storytelling has had on the World is incontrovertible. Human beings have a demonstrable instinct for invention. Myth-making will always be the means by which civilizations are conceived, constructed, and maintained.
Metaphor, parables, and hyperbole, embodied in mass media, are the tools that were used to develop agricultural based human existence into the current technological based world-wide paradigm we enjoy today.
Myths are stories with cultural significance that are told and retold, reimagined by an infinite number of individuals over endless cycles of time. Every story has a beginning that acts like a call to adventure, captivating the audience’s attention. If the ensuing plot proves to be filled with emotional and dramatic characterization we can easily relate to, we tend to get emotionally attached to the characters we have encountered. We start to care about even fictional people in exactly the same way we care about our friends and family. The emotional power storytelling has over human imagination is the glue that holds a growing global, and ever more interconnected, civilization together. The 21st century is an era sure to produce even more seemingly fantastic advances in immersive storytelling. The technology we have at our disposal today is just the beginning of what is more than likely to turn out to be a true revolution in human experience and consciousness.
No words have a more powerful hold over human consciousness than Once Upon a Time, save perhaps one other phrase that many of us seem to dread:
The end.